Cultural Competence

Coffee Culture

The modern business environment is ever more ethnically and culturally diverse. In the workplace, it is no longer unusual to work side by side with associates and employees who come from varied backgrounds. In addition, with globalization, there is growing interaction with different cultures across large geographies.  This unprecedented level of diversity comes with a […]

Aid for Trade

By Kevin Abraham Reading through a couple of African business magazines, I see that one topic of discussion is about a couple of UK initiatives in terms of foreign aid. In a nutshell: Approval of £228m in foreign aid to Ethiopia in its 2019/2020 budget, with the aim of developing infrastructure, and building “clean and […]

Pepsi in South Africa – an uphill climb

In the last 25 years or so, PepsiCo soft drinks have had a hard time in S.A. The trouble beganwhen it re-entered the market after the transition to democracy in 1994. Pepsi did pretty good business in South Africa up until the mid-eighties. In 1985, in responseto pressure to disinvest from Apartheid South Africa, it left. Coke […]

African Continental Trade Agreement: closer than ever.

In January, I wrote about the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (ACFTA). With the 7th July sign on of Nigeria and Benin a key obstacle to the pact’s feasibility has been eliminated.  So I thought I’d relook the subject, and see what new insights were available. Despite the fact that we have a continent of […]

The 1995 Barings bank collapse – a failure we might learn from.

Not much remains to remind us of Barings Bank, which collapsed nearly a quarter of a century ago, after having done pretty well for the Baring family for around 250 years. Technically, it was KO’d by the actions of just one man, but really, it probably couldn’t have happened without the unwitting culpability of just about every director and senior manager in the organization.

Cannabis vs alcohol: Which way will the market go, and grow?

Cannabis vs Alcohol

An article on the impact of increased cannabis consumption on the alcoholic beverage industry in USA [Jules Scully, Fastmoving, Feb 26th 2019] makes the point that as cannabis acceptance and consumption grows, the risk to alcohol beverages is likely to increase. The US cannabis industry has surged in recent years – ten states have now approved adult recreational use of cannabis products and 34 states have approved cannabis for medicinal purposes.

Responding to the rising digital economy

The 4th Industrial Revolution

In an earlier factlet, I mentioned that e-commerce is reshaping the retail sector. I thought I’d expand on that idea, and digging around, I found several interesting articles referring to Dr Nimrod Zalk, industrial development advisor to the South African Department of Trade & Industry (DTI). Dr Zalk is paying serious attention to the unprecedented […]